Pacific Ocean

Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a report by the environmental group Greenpeace says. Ocean currents and tides have carried plastic items thousands of miles to an area between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, the study found. This swirling vortex can grow to be about the size of Texas.

The creator of the reality television series "Cops" fell 300 feet from a cliff into the Pacific Ocean and was feared dead, police and the Coast Guard said. Paul Stojanovich, 47, and his fiancee were hiking at Treasures Cove when he slipped while posing for a picture. Stojanovich grabbed a tree limb to break his fall but plummeted into the surf below, according to the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office. Officers searched for three hours but didn't find any sign of Stojanovich.

A strong earthquake shook the sparsely populated Kuril Islands of the Soviet Far East today and was felt on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Soviet officials said. There were no reports of injury or damage. The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 and was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles southeast of the southern tip of the peninsula, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. There was no threat of a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami, or tidal wave, the warning center said.

Of all the ways to greet the new year, the most bracing is surely diving into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean. The intrepid participants in the Venice Penguin Club Swim will do just that, embarking on a brisk 400-yard outing. In addition to the glory, all finishers will receive a certificate, and snacks and hot beverages will be on hand. Sign-up begins at 11 a.m. Venice Breakwater, Venice Boulevard at Ocean Front Walk, L.A. Noon. Sat. Free. (310) 390-5700. http://www.swim.

The Obama administration says at least six, and as many as eight, Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will soon leave their island prison for freedom on the island nation of Palau. Word of the transfer to the tiny Pacific Ocean country, planned for sometime after Oct. 1, came in a letter released Thursday from Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Kagan also confirmed that Palau had agreed to accept all but one of the 13 Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, who remain at Guantanamo.

A U.S. securities dealer-turned-adventurer hopes to lift off from a dry riverbed in South Dakota today in a bid to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. Steve Fossett, 51, who last year became the first to cross the Pacific Ocean solo in a balloon, hopes to make his nonstop global journey in 16 to 21 days. "We're going. We expect a launch," Bo Kemper, spokesman for the project, said from his office in Chicago.

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a plan by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to measure global warming by booming sounds through the Pacific Ocean--but only after the scientists first study the impact of loud noise on undersea life and confirm that there are no ill effects.